A Nicholas County family who suffered unthinkable loss has turned grief into positivity. It's the tenth year that a poker run will be held in honor of two men who lost their lives all too soon

Local
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8/23/2014 6:39 AM
by Adam Mayer

MOUNT NEBO -- Losing one son is devastating, but losing a second child 10 months later is what Jamie Richardson has been dealing for the past 10 years.

Richardson, the mother of Patrick and Brian, says “the scholarship fund was initially set up when Brian was killed in Iraq in 2005, his older brother Patrick wanted to do something in his honor so he put the wheels in motion to create a scholarship fund, 10 months later Patrick was killed in a car wreck in Summersville.

Richardson says that the scholarship fund was put in place to help remember what both of her boys went through while they were in college.

She says “both of my boys went to college, both struggled financially, they both had to work and it was rough, it was very hard for them to make it and i know what this amount of money would have done to help them through school

15 locals took part in the first year of the event and raised 12-hundred dollars... Since then those numbers have been raised ten-fold.

And just to be able to do that in their memory it means a lot it keeps their memories alive forever and for a mother whose lost their child it's very important

Out of all the bikes that rode today, one stands alone, dedicated to a few, in honor of all.

Larry Trembley, the father of Joey, says “my youngest son, joey, was also killed in Iraq in 2005 in April they were all apart of 325 4th marine division out of that time was Mountainsville, West Virginia my son volunteered to go in the army, little did we know by their 7th or 8th month deployment they would lose 48 guys.”

Tremblay came all the way from New York for the poker run. He's the reason behind the bike.

He says “The bike is going to be 10 years old, 10 years since we lost the boys and I built the bike in honor of all the guys when I heard they were having a fundraiser and it's the 10th anniversary I had to be here because I think about these guys all the time. Some people call it therapy for me and how i deal with things but i want to keep everybody's memory alive.”